Voting Station

Freddie Starr

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Comedian

The Resume

    (January 9, 1943-May 9, 2019)
    Born in Huyton, Lancashire, England, United Kingdom
    Birth name was Frederick Fowell
    Discovered on the talent show ‘Opportunity Knocks’ (1967)
    Frequent performer on the sketch comedy show ‘Who Do You Do?’ (1972-76)
    Panelist on ‘Jokers Wild’ (1972-74)
    Starred in ‘Freddie Starr’ (1993-94) and ‘The Freddie Starr Show’ (1996-98)
    Appeared in the reality shows ‘Celebrity Fit Club’ (2004), ‘Celebrity Wife Swap’ (2008), ‘Living with the Dead’ (2009), and ‘I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here’ (2011)

Why he might be annoying:

    His obituary in ‘The Guardian’ described his act as ‘unrepentantly sexist, often racist comedy that was rendered overwhelmingly obsolete by the late 1980s.’
    He started one of his television specials by throwing live maggots into the audience (1996).
    He was addicted to Valium.
    He was married and divorced five times – including twice each to his former secretary.
    He was fined £45 for slapping his son (1999).
    He sued Karin Ward for slander after she claimed that when she was fifteen, he had groped her in the dressing room of the game show ‘Clunk Click’ and called her a ‘titless wonder.’
    He lost the suit, with the judge finding Ward’s allegations to be true and ordering Starr to pay £1 million for her legal costs (2015).

Why he might not be annoying:

    He was beaten by his father, a bare-knuckle boxer, who once broke both his legs.
    He was the first act in a Royal Variety Performance brought back for an encore (1970).
    He was the subject of one of the most famous headlines in the history of British tabloids, ‘Freddie Starr Ate My Hamster’ (‘The Sun,’ March 13, 1986).
    He always denied the story, and publicist Max Clifford later admitted to fabricating it.
    He owned Miinehoma, the horse that won the 1994 Grand National.

Credit: C. Fishel


Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

Year In Review:

    In 2023, Out of 5 Votes: 60.0% Annoying
    In 2022, Out of 3 Votes: 66.67% Annoying
    In 2021, Out of 10 Votes: 60.0% Annoying
    In 2020, Out of 14 Votes: 57.14% Annoying
    In 2019, Out of 60 Votes: 50.0% Annoying